(Photo by John Gichigi/Getty Images)
So with dignity and pride left back at the campsite we set off for the VIP section of the party where we put our fancy dress to the test. It succeeded for some but not others—no plan is ever foolproof.
Onto day two and a two-day hangover for some, a one-day hangover for others. With the sun shining and rugby to be played you can’t just sit around eating super-noodle sandwiches and wondering about the fine balance between repelling and attracting females so we went off to receive our free “no-hands” massage which turned out to be not as exciting or pleasant as it might sound.
Next it was onto the quarterfinals, where we met the Rugby Tour Barbarians who were pretending to be slightly worse for wear than us. It took us a while to shake the malaise out of our system and needed a last minute length of the field special from Squire to seal the match and our place in the semis.
By now it is safe to say our boys were starting to feel the effects of the weekend’s over-indulgences but we took the field knowing that one more victory would put us in a final on the main pitch in front of the crowd of thousands. Unfortunately we came up against a Warlingham Warriors team fresh from a quarterfinal bye and with an academy player in Jack Walsh with such a fine step he once had our players tackling each other as he breezed through untouched under the posts. We were beaten by a better team who went onto comfortably win the Cup.
Being knocked out had the benefit of watching all the finals on the main pitch and catching the superb England victory at the London 7s. Of particular relish was being able to smile smugly at the ridiculous Kiwi in the crowd who for some bizarre reason kept shouting at us to “suck it” whenever NZ scored a try. The chorus of “suck it” that echoed back at him when Micky Young scampered over for the winner was truly delightful.
Sunday night’s fancy dress theme was “school disco” so we decided to maintain our unconventional approach by going as naughty netballers. For our Irish heartthrob, Peter Foley, dressing in drag seemed to make him somehow much more attractive to the assembled ladies and as the rest of us looked on jealously he embarked on a three hour dancing spree in the VIP section the likes of which may never be bettered.
All in all a fantastic event and for those interested in the proper sevens, in the Invitational Cup the Samurai Barracudas upset the reigning champions, the Stash All-Stars who boasted Tagicakibau and some Armitages in their number, to win an excellent final by 19-17.
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